Ileana Covaliov got to her feet effortlessly as though she was pulled up by invisible strings. Cheers erupted all around immediately, and Lucy spun in a slow circle to take in her surroundings for the first time.
There were way too many lights on this caged stage, but it did little to hide the sheer number of people watching. As for the location itself, it looked like a closed-off stadium, although Lucy couldn’t figure out which part of the world she was in. Common sense told her that this was some kind of cage fight, where she probably had to fight her opponent to the death or something.
But for what? Was this all just for the sake of some sick entertainment?
“Ladies and gentlemen, the fight you’ve all been waiting for is finally here!” an excited voice yelled into a loudspeaker, rattling the metal cage with every word. “Last call to place your bets now!”
“Ileana?” Lucy looked at her opponent, wide-eyed.
Ileana leaned coolly against the cage with her arms folded, her lean muscles visibly tensed.
“Eleven fights waged! Eleven fights won! The Crimson Demoness. The Nightmare of Transylvania. The vampire that not even a pack of werewolves could defeat… Ileana Covaliov!”
More cheers went around.
“Our final challenger…” The announcer’s silhouette pointed at Lucy. “Comes straight from England. Ladies and gentlemen, the only thing that can defeat a vampire… must be another vampire! I give you… Lucy Carpenter!”
Jeers went around this time.
“Wow! The bets are… nine to one in favour of our crimson demoness!” the announcer mocked. “Well, let us see if our Englishwoman will surprise us tonight! The winner gets the chance to gain unfathomable power, so the stakes are up! Now, fight!”
Dark magic swirled around Ileana as a red glow lit up her eyes in an instant. She stepped towards Lucy threateningly.
“W— Wait! Just— Just hold on!” Lucy put her hands in front of her frantically as she backed away. “Why are you fighting for them? Let’s… Let’s escape together!”
Ileana rushed forward at a blistering speed, driving her claws straight through Lucy’s back. Pain contorted Lucy’s body as she spat a huge puddle of blood. With a sickening squelch, Ileana pulled her hand back, along with a blackened heart.
Lucy fell to her knees as her eyes turned bloodshot immediately. More blood choked her gasps, and she began spasming uncontrollably.
“And the running champion strikes the first blow!” the announcer yelled in excitement. “Ouch, that looked like it hurt. Is this the end already?”
Ileana yelped as something swept her leg without warning.
Lucy pushed her body off the ground with a burst of energy before seizing the chance to kick her opponent away. She released a soft hiss as her magic regenerated her heart and sealed up the gaping wound in her chest within seconds.
Plague upon this, I must away!
Focus hardened Lucy’s eyes as she slipped into shadow form. Normally, it would kill her to transform in full light. But the shadows cast by the cage’s bars were enough for her to seek shelter in them. All she had to do was follow the shadows’ paths and get out of this cage—
Lucy screamed as holy magic practically electrocuted her body, flinging her back into the cage in her physical form. She panted desperately, trying to lock eyes with anyone in the audience to hypnotise them instead. But the lights were too glaring for her to see their faces, let alone look into their eyes.
Dammit, she was out of options.
Another tiny flash of movement was all the warning she got. Lucy stepped back at supernatural speed, deftly avoiding a frenzied slashing of claws in her face. Panic hit her faster than logical thought as she ran towards the cage bars, only to be thrown back again with another nasty shock of holy magic.
“What are you doing?” Ileana jabbed a clawed hand at her. “Fight, or they’ll kill us both!”
Lucy shook her head. “No, they can’t. They don’t know how. You don’t have to do this, Ileana. Let us work together to fight them instead.”
Ileana froze for a moment as she lowered her hand. And then she smirked.
“Fool of a woman. I want to do this.” A sinister smile crept along her face. “Didn’t you hear? The winner gets unfathomable power. That’s why they have this tournament in the first place, to weed out the weak.”
“W— What?” Lucy breathed. “What is this power?”
“I know not, only that the strongest creatures can survive it. What better way to prove it than to best a fellow vampire in combat?”
Lucy glanced at a glyph carved into the ceiling right above the cage. It looked to be some sort of black magic glyph that could manipulate life energy, but she couldn’t tell exactly how it functioned. What she did know, however, was that it was clearly connected to this cage, judging from the stream of magic in the air.
“You don’t even know what power you’re getting, and you already want it?” Lucy exclaimed incredulously. “You’re the fool! Fine. If you want it so much, you can have it. I yield.”
Ileana slashed at her again with a demonic shriek. “It doesn’t work that way, woman. Stop running from me!”
Lucy somersaulted, flipped, and rolled away from her opponent, who was thoroughly intent on taking her life. More jeers rang around them.
“Hey, hey! What’s going on?” the announcer shouted. “One of our contenders is a coward! Let’s give them some incentive, shall we?”
Both women shrieked as holy magic bolts burst from the top of the cage, striking them squarely on their heads.
“For every minute you waste, you’ll get a nasty shock! Now get fighting already!”
Ileana released a primal scream of frustration before tackling Lucy to the floor. Lucy raised her hands to protect herself, but her opponent simply swatted them aside and started raking at Lucy’s face with her claws.
“Oh, my! It’s a catfight! Oh, how I’ve missed watching those…”
Two huge bat-like wings unfurled from Lucy’s back, pushing her body from the ground. She grabbed Ileana by her hair and flung her at the cage. Ileana screamed as the holy magic ran through her body.
“Heh… Heh heh…” Ileana got up groggily as vampire wings burst from her back as well. “Is that all you’ve got? No wonder Vlad didn’t want you anymore.”
Lucy’s lips quivered as white-hot rage shot up her spine, driven by the horrible memories of her late husband cheating on her. The countless days she spent alone… The night she walked into him in bed with three women…
She snarled at Ileana, who looked no different than she did a hundred years ago when she was locked in a tight embrace with Vladislaus Dracula.
Fangs burst from her gums.
Blackened blood sprayed as she sank her teeth into the woman’s collarbone without warning. Lucy tore her mouth through the flesh savagely, spilling more blood all over the floor. Ileana screeched and drove her claws through the Englishwoman’s chest in return.
The world spun like an uncontrolled top as Lucy was flung headfirst to the ground. She barely had time to wheeze before yellowish claws dug into her neck and lifted her.
“What a disappointing finish.” Ileana grinned at the struggling woman. “Vlad was right. You always fail to satisfy. Give up, Carpenter. I’m the better fighter. I’m the better lover. You can’t compare to me in any way.”
“Transylvanian bitch!”
A satisfying thud rang out as Lucy kicked her opponent hard in the stomach, causing Ileana to double over. Pain stung like wildfire as Ileana dragged her claws down, almost tearing Lucy’s throat out.
Without losing a beat, Lucy dragged the woman by the scruff of her neck and pressed her face against the cage bars savagely. Smoke gushed out as Ileana howled and trashed in pain, but Lucy wasn’t done yet.
Three, two, one. Now!
She lifted her opponent over her head as two bolts of holy magic tore from the cage’s ceiling again, rushing towards both prisoners. Dark particles billowed out like smoke as both bolts struck Ileana’s body this time.
Lucy dropped Ileana to the ground after a few seconds, allowing the woman to writhe in agony. A twinge of pain stung her conscience as she watched her opponent wail and whimper on the ground like a wounded animal. The holy magic was potent enough to gouge a hole in Ileana’s magic reserves, and dark magic was now bleeding profusely from her pores.
Lucy swung around at the announcer. “Tis done! I am victorious! Please, let us go! Ileana needs healing now—”
Blood burst from her mouth as something sharp went through her back. Lucy gurgled in shock and touched the three claws poking out from her torso, which looked at least three times bigger than Ileana’s regular claws.
“Not. Yet.” Hot air tickled her neck as a raspy, demonic voice breathed in her ear.
She was flung away yet again.
“Screw this power. Screw this tournament.” The ground shook with every step Ileana took towards her. “I just want you to die!”
Lucy dived to the side as a huge, furry arm raked the air where her head was.
Ileana was not so much a woman anymore, but a vampire in all sense of the word. She had transformed into her demonic form: A hulking bat-like monster at least three times her size. Her wings and claws were a lot bigger than they normally were, and her mouth was filled with jagged teeth too numerous to fit in it.
Lucy pursed her lips. Such a transformation normally took copious amounts of dark magic to sustain. With Ileana’s injuries, she must be sacrificing her healing by staying in her true form.
Dammit, she is truly bent on my destruction.
The entire cage shook as Ileana slashed wildly at Lucy again. Metal rattled as pieces of the cage bars were ripped off from the impact. The cheering stopped abruptly as the audience took in the implication of two vampires in a broken cage.
Meanwhile, Lucy frantically dodged her enraged opponent. Ileana’s claws looked like they were blistering from touching the enchanted metal earlier, but she was probably too preoccupied in her frenzy to care about the pain.
Lucy hissed. She would transform as well if she could, but the incessant attacks weren’t giving her enough to complete her transformation. All she could do now was avoid the attacks.
Of course, the hole in the cage could be her escape, but would Ileana really allow that to happen? Even if she got out of the cage, she had to contend with a huge group of magically enhanced people. And even if she managed to defeat them all, would Ileana simply let her escape this place unscathed?
Lucy picked up a sharpened piece of the cage bar, gritting her teeth against the sting of holy magic burning her palm. There was no other way about it; it was her or Ileana. Time seemed to slow down as the grotesque monster lunged towards Lucy.
She thrust the pole forward.
Ileana didn’t scream. No, she didn’t even make a sound. Her snout simply hung open, either in shock or disbelief— likely both— as she gripped the enchanted pole that had pierced right through her heart.
The vampire staggered backwards, blood overflowing from her mouth as she slowly shrank back into human form with each step. Black particles overflowed uncontrollably from her body as she fell to her knees.
And just like that, Ileana Covaliov collapsed to the ground, exhaling her last breath.
Movement erupted all around as the audience leapt from their seats, rushing to restrain the surviving vampire before she could escape the place.
Lucy growled in response, her red irises burning brighter with power by the second. She had plenty of time to transform now, and she’d be damned if she was going to let these people imprison her again—
The lights went off without warning.
Smoke flooded the entire stadium as something exploded nearby, causing the cultists to cough uncontrollably. Lucy’s eyes watered as she looked around in confusion. What the hell is going on now?
Figures in all black darted around the oblivious people, stabbing them and slitting their throats with frightening efficiency. Whoever they were, they were certainly well-trained assassins. But were they friend or foe?
“Sore da!”
Japanese? Are they Shinobi?
Something stuck itself onto Lucy’s chest. She widened her eyes, recognising that pineapple shape.
Oh, fie—
A deafening explosion rang out as the grenade exploded, blowing the vampire’s body to smithereens. Blackened flesh splattered against the walls, and all that remained was a pair of legs crumpling to the ground.
The Shinobi wasted no time moving in to pick up the legs. White bones were already beginning to grow from the stumps on the legs, so they hurriedly shoved them into a body bag.
One of them removed his mask, turning his lips in disgust at the sight of Ileana’s corpse. He turned to his allies.
“No survivors.” Lieutenant Yoshida signalled for his men to leave. “We’re done here."15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhYWP6pzBww
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